Of Ladybugs and Cats
by scarlett-hued-shimako
Summary: Who knew there was a difference between knowing someone and understanding someone? And that it involved ladybugs and cats?


**Of Ladybugs and Cats**

At the age of five, Shimako found her first friend in Aya. Serendipity had played a hand at their first encounter. How else did Shimako know to wander behind the Toudou Shrine that brilliant day in May?

When she first saw the fragile figure, Shimako was a bit frightened. She had never met anyone like Aya before, but after a few minutes of Aya's hovering over her, Shimako decided that little Aya was harmless. And after half an hour of play, which consisted of Aya acquainting herself with Shimako's hand, Shimako dragged poor Aya to meet her father.

"Father," Shimako greeted as the older man turned away from the letter he was writing and gave his daughter his attention with a welcoming smile and a nod of the head "Can Aya stay with us? I think she'll be afraid of the dark if she's left alone tonight."

Mr. Toudou looked behind his daughter, trying to find this Aya, but to no avail. When his glazed returned to his daughter's, ready to steel itself in case Aya was waiting in Shimako's room, his attention was directed to Shimako's outreached palm, and he laughed at his own assumptions.

"Of course Aya can stay with us!" Mr. Toudou chuckled as he ruffled Shimako's curls."Just make sure to put her in a jar so she doesn't run away."

Shimako nodded vigorously as she sped off in the direction of the kitchen, and as Mr. Toudou watched his daughter's retreating form, a smile formed on his lips. He hadn't seen Shimako this excited in a long time. Or really anytime for that matter.

After retrieving a jar from the top shelf in the kitchen, a feat within itself when you were under four feet tall, Shimako headed towards her room. There she placed Aya inside the jar and watched with fascination as Aya floated through the air with her white dotted red wings.

"You're going to need some food Aya." Shimako proclaimed as she tapped the jar to get Aya's attention. Aya responded by taking flight once again. But this was enough for Shimako, and so the young girl sped outside in order to gather some leafs.

When she returned, she placed the leafs inside the jar, taking precautions to ensure that Aya didn't escape, and as she watched Aya nibble on a Sakura leaf, Shimako smiled a mega watt smile.

"Aya," Shimako announced happily. "You're my best friend!"

From that day on. Shimako and Aya were inseparable. Shimako would carry the jar wherever she went, earning exacerbated looks from her parents from time to time.

She and Aya held a kinship that no one understood, not even four year old Shimako. Aya was there to listen to her troubles, and with Aya, Shimako felt comfortable enough to escape the emotional shell she resided within and actually voice not only her fears and desires, but also her loneliness, though she didn't feel as lonely when she was with Aya.

One day, while Shimako and Aya were outside, Shimako saw another ladybug dart across her vision. Her first instinct was to capture it so that Aya could have company when Shimako wasn't around, but as she watched the ladybug continue to dance along with the wind, Shimako realized what she had done and felt ashamed.

Shimako had held Aya hostage in order to pacify her own loneliness, and even though this did wonders for Shimako's self esteem, it wasn't fair to Aya. Aya wasn't meant to be contained in a glass bubble, totally dependent on Shimako for survival. Aya was meant to roam around with other ladybugs, to fly and crawl and eat whenever she pleased wherever she wanted.

Even though it sadden her to do so, Shimako unscrewed the cap and watched with mournful eyes as Aya ascended from the jar and zoomed towards the open canvas of light blue.

As the years passed by, Shimako would look back at her memories with Aya with fondness, and whenever a ladybug happened to land itself on her arms or hands, Shimako allowed it to crawl around her skin as she recited to the six-legged creature whatever was going on in her life.

Perhaps that's why Shimako didn't find it odd when a ladybug landed on her lap, and she decided to talk to it about her day.

"Gokigenyo Aya. I haven't seen you in awhile." Shimako welcomed as she ignored the unwrapped lunch sitting beside her. She placed her hand next to the red coated bug and watched with fondness as it crawled onto her hand.

"It's been a long time since we last talked. A lot has changed." Here Shimako paused, trying to repress the uncharacteristic spout of excitement that was erupting from her throat. A lot had changed, epically since that morning.

"You might notice that I'm wearing a rosary around my wrist." Shimako stated, happiness in her voice. "She made me her petite soeur Aya. I'm officially the Rosa Gigantea en bouton."

The ladybug, of course, had no response to this acclamation other than to continue its exploration of Shimako's fair skin.

"I wasn't expecting it in the least. I especially wasn't expecting her to burst into my classroom, only to drag me under that Sakura tree," Shimako pointed to the tree a few feet in front of them, "five minutes before class started to give me her rosary. But looking back on it now, I wouldn't change it for anything."

Unbeknownst to her, a hungry Sei was roaming the school grounds in search of her petite soeur. It was their first day as Onee-sama and petite soeur, and Sei figured they should do something special for the occasion.

After asking a few first years, one of whom was this adorable pig-tailed girl who screeched like a baby dinosaur, Sei found out that Shimako spent her lunch hour eating her lunch on the steps behind the church.

Once Sei got closer to her designation, the soft murmur Sei attributed to the light wind swaying her skirt grew in volume until she realized that it was a person's voice. More specifically, her petite soeur's voice.

For a brief moment, Sei's brows scrunched in confusion. She had been told that Shimako spent lunch by herself, something Sei wasn't surprised about. Maybe she got the wrong information.

As she turned the corner, Sei froze.

"She made this little speech, saying she wasn't going to be an overbearing Onee-sama, and then asked me to be her petite soeur, though the look in her eye told me she wouldn't take no for an answer." Shimako beamed at the ladybug crawling on her fingertips, not noticing the presence of the white rose.

Sei could honestly say she had never seen Shimako talk to her hand, more specifically, the ladybug on her hand, and second, she had never seen Shimako this carefree before. She actually appeared like a normal high school girl.

Sei considered retreating her steps, not wanting to encroach on this moment of privacy but in the end decided against it. She didn't want to just understand Shimako; Sei wanted to know the younger girl as well and finding out why she was talking to a ladybug was the first step in doing so.

After gathering her bearings, Sei stepped forward, announcing "so, there's my petite soeur."

Shimako jumped in fright and as she faced the grinning face of her Onee-sama, Shimako instantly turned bright red.

"Go-Gokigenyo Onee-sama,"Shimako greeted, feeling a slight warmth in her chest for being able to call Sei her Onee-sama. Shimako tried to restrain her embarrassment before continuing. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

Sei shook her head, her messy blonde locks swaying in the air. "No. I just wanted to have lunch with you. Will that be a problem?"

Shimako shook her head, replying softly, "Nothing would bring me more joy." The genuine smile on the younger girl's face was proof of that.

After Sei took a seat next to Shimako on the steps and both girls were in the process if unwrapping their lunches, Sei saw from the corner of her eye the same ladybug from earlier crawling on Shimako's sleeve.

"So," Sei began, preparing her chop sticks in her hand, "who were you talking to before I walked up?"

Shimako immediately locked eyes with Sei, not breaking contact even though Sei could see the instant coloring of her cheeks. She was searching for something, and once Shimako found it, she sighed as she lifted her arm closer to Sei, showing Sei the ladybug.

Sei looked at the white dotted bug and wondered if Shimako honestly thought she was going to laugh at the admission, but truth be told, the urge never came up.

"A ladybug?"

Shimako nodded her head.

"Yes. When I was younger, I had a ladybug named Aya, and since I didn't really have friends as a child, Aya became my best friend. I would always tell Aya all my problems. I don't know what it was about that ladybug that incited me to be open, to feel comfortable enough to expose the real me. Eventually though, I had to let Aya go, but every time since then, when I came across a ladybug, I still had that comforting feeling I had with Aya so I would tell that ladybug whatever was going on in my life."

Shimako stared at the ladybug during the whole story, not wanting to meet Sei's eyes. And continued staring even after she was done, waiting for Sei's response. When seconds passed and all she received was silence, Shimako lifted her eyes to see a disbelieving smile on Sei's face.

"We're more alike than I thought." Sei admitted.

Shimako's eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean?"

Sei placed her hands on the concrete behind her and leaned back, eyes no longer looking at Shimako but at the sky.

"When I was six, I didn't have any friends. The only interaction that lasted pass pleasantries was when I got into a fight with Eriko in kindergarten. I just didn't care, you know? But of course my mother didn't approve of my being antisocial and deciding it was better to gradually develop my sociability than throwing me head first into actives that would have me constantly around kids my own age, she got me a cat. I planned on hating the cat because I knew what my mother was up to, but gradually, I came to love him to the point that I wanted to take him wherever I went. I would tell him everything, but when I was around eleven, he ran away."

Sei paused when the memory of her mother's telling her the bad news. It was sometime in spring, and to make matters worse, she had just come home from a horrible day at school. Sei couldn't remember ever crying that much. God, she loved that cat.

"But I know what you mean," Sei said as she shook the memory from her mind. "I still have that same comforting feeling whenever I come across another cat."

Shimako smiled. "Like Goronta?"

"Especially Goronta."

There was more to be said, but Sei wasn't sure if she wanted to say it. Or if she was even ready to.

She glanced at Shimako, expecting to see expecting eyes looking back at her, urging her to continue, but instead, Shimako was focused on her lunch, picking up a piece of chicken with her chop sticks.

Youko was right; they were alike and because of that, understood each other more than anyone else.

Sei turned her attention back to her own lunch, gathering the courage to expand on her previous statement.

"I was hurt pretty badly last year." Sei wasn't ready to expand on _that_, and somehow Shimako knew that and kept silent. "And if it wasn't for my Onee-sama's taking care of me, I wouldn't be completely here today. That's why earlier this year when I found Goronta cut up after an encounter with some crows, I decided to nurse him back to health because he looked like how I use to feel. I guess there was a sort of kinship."

Sei said the last part with a smile, one that was mirrored on Shimako's face. A silence fell upon both girls as they went back to their lunches, feeling more connected to each other than before.

As they finished their lunches, Shimako voiced what had been on both girls' minds.

"We don't really know each other, do we?"

Sei swallowed the last of her meal before looking at Shimako. "We don't, but we do understand each other. I guess at the beginning on this relationship, it was all we wanted because we weren't ready for the responsibility that came with caring for someone."

"We understood each other, but we didn't know the little things, the things that make people close."

"Right. I know that the reason you seem so withdrawn from the world is because you need to observe it in order to know how to fit in it because you don't want to be even more of an outsider than you already are." Sei watched with a sort of fascination as Shimako smiled inside of withdrawing even further at being read so clearly. "But I have no clue what's your favorite ice cream flavor."

Shimako nodded in agreement.

"And I know the reason you appear carefree and aloof most of the time is because you don't want to be troubled by other people's worry for you. If you present yourself as carefree, others will assume that's what you are and look pass the pain, thinking it was all in their head." Shimako smiled." But you're right. I have no idea if you can play any instruments or not."

"And when you know the little things about someone, you start to care about them and because of that, there's a responsibility to continue caring for this person, to make sure they're happy or whatever."

"But you weren't ready to care for me."

Sei nodded. "I cared for someone last year, and she hurt me. And to tell you the truth, when I first met you, you reminded me of her. But I learned later that those sentiments were ill placed because you were more like me than her."

Sei chuckled a bit as she looked at Shimako's unfazed expression, the discussion she had with Youko a few months ago playing in her head.

" I didn't want to care for you because I didn't want to experience that pain again. That's why I was so furious with Youko and Eriko for their meddling, but as you came to the Rose Mansion more and more, I realized you weren't her. You didn't consume my every thought to the point where I thought I couldn't live without you beside me. You were just you, Shimako, with a comforting presence whenever I needed it. I admit I liked having someone who understood that words didn't mean anything to me but that human contact did."

Sei shifted a bit in her seat, uncomfortable with how much openness she was expressing, but the smile that graced Shimako's lips was more than worth it.

"And so you wanted to care for me."

"Yes, and I guess when Sachiko told me this morning that she had offered you her rosary something I realized I needed you in my life. That caring for someone again couldn't be all that bad."

"Is that why you had lunch with me today? Because you wanted to get to know me better?"

"Yes, I thought lunch was a brilliant masquerade for my intentions but alas you saw through it." Sei huffed playfully as she dusted the crumbs from her skirt.

Both girls laughed as they cleaned up what was left of their lunches, pausing only briefly when the five minute warning bell rang through Lillian, reminding each student that here was still material to be learned.

A stillness grew between them before Shimako said,"orange sherbert." At Sei's confused look, Shimako clarified. "My favorite ice cream flavor."

Sei chuckled."I can only play the piano albeit horribly."

Knowing that they couldn't stay outside, Sei stood up and stretched her arms to the sky before offering one to Shimako. "Let me walk you to class. I need to flaunt my petite soeur so others know to back off." Sei joked and Shimako giggled as she took Sei's arm in her own, feeling a bit guilty about laughing at Sachiko's expense.

"So you only asked me to be your petite soeur because you thought I was beautiful?" Shimako asked teasingly as the duo rounded the corner.

The words her Onee-sama told her years ago flashed through her mind: I want you as my petite soeur because I like your face. Sei turned her head to Shimako and studied the younger girl's face. You had to be blind to even consider calling Shimako anything other than beautiful, but it wasn't the flawlessness that captures Sei. It was what resided behind Shimako's sapphire eyes: a kindred soul.

"No Shimako," Sei replied, turning her head forward, preparing the rakish grin on her face as the other students came into view. "but it's definitely a plus."

After that day, Shimako didn't need Aya as much because that same comforting feeling she had with Aya she had with Sei. And when she talked to Sei, it wasn't just a one-sided conversation; Sei actually listened and offered a hand when need be. For once, Shimako found someone that she could open herself up to without fear of being judged.

Sei didn't need Goronta as much either. It was much easier to talk to someone who could relate and would actually respond without nuzzling their head against her neck.

And because of their closeness, Shimako didn't have to worry about Sei feeling trapped, and Sei didn't have to worry about Shimako running away because in the end they cared for each other.

It was a nice feeling.

FIN


End file.
